


xv. the devil

by retrofaery



Category: TOMORROW X TOGETHER | TXT (Korea Band)
Genre: Alien/Human Relationships, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Venom (2018) Fusion, Humor, Light Horror, M/M, Making Out, side sunhak for the moadeobis, symbiote!beomgyu
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-30
Updated: 2020-10-30
Packaged: 2021-03-08 01:47:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,145
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26937631
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/retrofaery/pseuds/retrofaery
Summary: Yeonjun is a tired college student. Beomgyu is a dangerous symbiote who escapes his lab and takes the form of a cat one stormy night, lying in wait for his first victim. Except Yeonjun ends up being less of a victim and more of an object of his affections, but that's a nuance Yeonjun isn't willing to get into right now.(Or: A Venom AU.)
Relationships: Choi Beomgyu/Choi Yeonjun
Comments: 8
Kudos: 137





	xv. the devil

Yeonjun signs his day off as Straight-Up Fucking Awful when it starts to rain.

“The _one_ day I decide to walk,” he hisses under his breath as he flips his hood up over his head, shoving his phone in his pockets and brushing his hair away from his eyes. He fumbles with his backpack for an umbrella and groans when he remembers he didn’t even bring one today.

The first splatters of rain fall hard and fat against his palm when he sullenly holds up a hand. It turns into a downpour all too quickly.

“Hanging around or the storm?” Asks a worker when he gives in and ducks inside a small hole-in-the-wall ramen shop he and Haknyeon occasionally stop by.

“Yeah,” Yeonjun grumbles. “I should’ve just taken the subway home today.”

“Life works in strange ways,” the man says amusedly as he grabs his mop again.

It’s pouring so hard Yeonjun can’t even see across the street by the time he shoots Haknyeon a text—`gonna be home late, it’s storming too hard to walk :(`—and nightfall comes quickly. `21:03`, reads his phone after a while of mindlessly staring off into space, and he sighs.

By the time the rain lessens up, Yeonjun’s legs have fallen asleep. He says his goodbyes to the restaurant workers even as he limps out on pins and needles. The stench of rain is heavy in the air, sidewalks and roads glistening with it, and it’s eerily quiet as he begins his trudge home.

There’s a lightning storm, though distant enough to not worry him too much as he pulls his hood up and dodges as many puddles as he can. The cars are few and far between, an occurrence so rare it almost gives Yeonjun chills.

Seoul is _always_ awake—it’s the one rule of the city that things here always abide by. So to have everything so silent is… off-putting.

He’s halfway through considering his earbuds even though it’s nighttime when he hears a quiet mewl.

It _definitely_ isn’t distant—in fact, Yeonjun’s pretty sure it came from somewhere behind and to the right of him, backtracking a few steps to the alleyway he’d just passed. It’s pitch-black in there, but after a moment he hears the mewl again, quiet and desperate and strained, like whatever the voice belongs to is struggling to make itself known.

Cautiously, Yeonjun takes a step inside the darkness.

It takes a moment for his eyes to adjust, but when they do, he breathes a sigh of relief at the sight—it’s a cat, white with black spots, curled up behind a box and sopping wet. “Oh, baby,” he coos, pouting as the cat mewls again and shrinks away, clearly frightened. “You got caught up in the storm, didn’t you?”

The cat makes a crying noise and huddles up closer to the box, seeking warmth, and Yeonjun sighs. “Okay, c’mere,” he murmurs as he slides his backpack off his shoulders and zips it open, grabbing the towel he typically uses for dance. He hadn’t gone to practice today because it’d been cancelled, so the towel is dry and clean, and when the cat makes no move to run, he wraps the towel around it.

Maybe it’s a stupid move to make, Yeonjun muses as he dries the cat off as best he can. He has no idea where this cat even came from, really—meaning it could have rabies, or could belong to someone else. But the cat looks so scared that he can’t help but feel protective over it, and it isn’t attacking him, so… he should be fine. He thinks.

“I think I’ll bring you home with me,” he contemplates aloud, tilting his head to the side. “Haknyeon always brings strays home, even though our landlord doesn’t like pets. Hm? Does that sound good?”

The cat’s whiskers twitch, it’s pale fur practically a glowing beacon in the darkness, and it lets Yeonjun pick it up in his arms carefully.

He doesn’t remember much afterwards. Later, Beomgyu will tell him there was a flash of lightning so close and so bright it blinded him, and that Yeonjun had stumbled and nearly fallen, but clung to the cat for dear life. That, Beomgyu will say a matter-of-factly, was his first mistake.

He’ll tell him that he had turned back to his true form. That he sunk into Yeonjun’s skin like he belonged there, and mapped out his body as though he was searching for some sort of treasure.

Truth be told, Yeonjun doesn’t give a shit about the details. All _he_ can remember is standing up like nothing happened, noting the cat on the ground with a detached sort of passive apathy incredibly unlike himself, before a guttural scream ripped through him and shook his skull with three simple words: _WE ARE HUNGRY!!!!!!!!_

✰

That was two weeks ago.

“We are hungry,” Beomgyu hisses now, slithering up next to him, and Yeonjun rolls his eyes.

Beomgyu has unceremoniously decided to take the form of a gooey blob today, meaning 1. He drips a sticky, unknown liquid across everything he touches, leaving Yeonjun to tiredly clean up after him while he silently watches on, and 2. He doesn't even have any _eyes_ , which is terrifying, and yet Yeonjun can feel his stare boring into him anyway.

“Can you stop being hungry, then?” Yeonjun says dryly. “I'm trying to study. Being a dance major can only get you out of so many shitty classes.”

“I have no concern for human matters,” Beomgyu says with a disapproving air. “I thought we agreed on feeding times.”

Yeonjun snorts. “Dude, _you_ made your own feeding times, not me. Now shoo. Go eat a human or something, I'm busy.”

“You say this, and yet you are the only human in vicinity,” Beomgyu growls threateningly, and Yeonjun gulps.

“Okay, okay. Threats of murder are uncessary, alright? I'll get your damn food.”

“Good boy,” Beomgyu coos, and Yeonjun feels his face heat as he stands, scowling when the symbiote laughs in his head.

That's what he—or it, really, but Beomgyu had threatened to devour Yeonjun whole when he referred to him as such, then, too—is. A symbiote. Something right out of the superhero stories. Yeonjun had very valiantly claimed that this meant he _had_ to be a secret superhero himself, to which Beomgyu had replied: _You forget I am a villain, fool. Now, I am hungry. Go get me something to eat_.

Whatever. Beomgyu is a party killer, quite literally. If Yeonjun wants to be the next Spiderman, he absolutely fucking will.

But yeah. The night of the storm and eerie silence that followed, Beomgyu had escaped from a bunker lab just northwest of Yeonjun, before proceeding to take the soul of a stray cat, lying in wait for his first human victim.

“Why didn't you eat me?” Yeonjun had asked curiously mid-conversation. Most of the conversation had occurred inside Yeonjun's head, so Haknyeon gives him an incredulous look. “Not you, dude, I'm talking to Beomgyu. Well?”

 _Why I didn’t eat you?_ Beomgyu contemplates. _Perhaps I believed you would make for a disgusting, unsatisfying meal._

“Hey, what the hell, dude!” Yeonjun gasps. “I think I'd taste amazing, excuse you.”

“The fuck?” Haknyeon mutters from the couch.

As for how Haknyeon had taken all of this—well, when he stepped inside their shared apartment after hanging out with his boyfriend to see Yeonjun on the floor, panting as Beomgyu (in glob form, of course) finished off the last scraps of food he’d possessed Yeonjun into grabbing from the fridge, his roommate had justifiably passed out. _A weakling_ , Beomgyu said. _There is no hope for this one_.

Yeonjun, still recovering from the whole _being possessed by an alien_ thing, was still panting. “Beomgyu says he has no hope for you.”

“Tell your alien bastard that he can suck my dick,” Haknyeon had grumbled, and Beomgyu hissed so loudly it shook the inside of Yeonjun's skull.

Since then, Beomgyu has been nothing but a total pain in the ass, causing problems in increasingly devious ways that even Yeonjun is impressed by, despite being so annoyed. 

Within the first three days Beomgyu manages to tip over their fridge looking for something that apparently fell behind it (“You’re literally a shapeshifter?” Yeonjun pointed out incredulously as their fridge groaned out its final breath), scare Haknyeon seven times, twice in the middle of his shower (“Keep your shitty little demon caged or I will _kill_ you, Yeonjun, I swear to fucking god,” his roommate hissed as he wrapped his towel around his waist), and _then_ he manages to interrupt Yeonjun in the middle of a phone interview for a job he’s been eyeing for months now. Not once, but twice.

The second time he hisses for food, wrapping himself around Yeonjun’s ankle, he nearly launches his phone out of his window as he mutes himself and says, “I’m two seconds away from committing murder right now. Will you shut the fuck up?”

“Sorry,” his interviewer says mildly, and Yeonjun belatedly realizes he actually pressed the speaker button. “What was that, sir?”

Yeonjun put his head in his hands.

“My sincerest apologies,” Beomgyu says afterwards, sounding genuinely guilty as he seamlessly starts to sink into Yeonjun's arm again. It is incredibly disconcerting to watch black ink dissolve into his skin, so naturally Yeonjun can't look away. “I do not know how mortals and _job offers_ work, but clearly I was a disturbance.”

Yeonjun wants to smack himself upside the head with how pity instantly starts eating at him. “It's no big deal,” he finds himself saying immediately. “You're all good. Maybe it's a sign that the job wasn't good for me in the first place, anyway.”

Beomgyu's response is to actually _purr_ , the sound bouncing off the walls of his brain until it rumbles deep in his chest. Haknyeon, in the middle of a phone call with his boyfriend, gives him a strange look, which is how he realizes Beomgyu is actually making him purr with him.

“Cut that shit out, dude,” Yeonjun sighs, and Beomgyu laughs.

“Sorry, sorry.”

✰

Apparently all beings and entities put on the earth are built with a single-minded purpose, and Beomgyu's main objective is this:

 _To take down the bunker lab I was trapped in for so long_ , the symbiote says, _and to free my kin, unleashing them on the rest of the earth. Also, I would like to try what you humans have called McDonald’s_.

Yeonjun frowns. “Woah, stop right there.”

Beomgyu stops slithering across the countertop to turn his glowing eyes on him. “Did I pronounce McDonald’s wrong?” He asks out loud.

“Wh—no! That’s not it.” Yeonjun shakes his head. “I’m talking about… freeing your kin. Do you really think _unleashing them on the rest of the earth_ is a good idea?”

They’ve only known each other for less than a week, but Yeonjun can already tell when Beomgyu is trying to stare into his soul. It’s a deep, contemplative look that gives him goosebumps.

“Yeonjun,” the symbiote says calmly. “As different as we are, we still share the same quality of being able to speak and feel, which gives us a voice. This guarantees our right to freedom, does it not?”

Yeonjun winces immediately and looks away, scratching the back of his neck. “Okay, yeah, that was insensitive. And I’m assuming you want help on this road to freedom?”

Beomgyu snickers. “You will help me, won’t you?”

Yeonjun gives the symbiote a deadpan look. “Do I have a choice?”

“Of course not,” Beomgyu says plainly, as if this should be common knowledge and Yeonjun just needs to get with the program. Yeonjun groans.

Just to make sure, he asks Beomgyu one question as he gets ready later: “Are you going to leave me after this? Like, once your mission is done or whatever?”

Beomgyu doesn’t respond for a moment. “Does it determine whether or not you will participate?”

“No,” Yeonjun sighs. “What determines whether or not I’ll participate is if you decide to eat me if I don’t.”

“Ah, I enjoy your logic,” Beomgyu says, tittering an infuriatingly cute laugh in Yeonjun’s head. “Not once did I threaten to eat you since bringing this up, and already you are making assumptions. Are you scared of me?”

He says it teasingly, condescending in a way that makes Yeonjun’s cheeks burn. “Of course I am? Aren’t you some ancient alien being?”

“Actually,” Beomgyu says, blinking slowly, “In human years I am a year and a half younger than you.”

Yeonjun stares at him for a moment, squinting at him. “Was that a joke?”

“No,” Beomgyu says. “I did the math a few nights ago while you were sleeping.”

 _That_ explains why Yeonjun had an awful nightmare about his freshman year Algebra class, then. “Wait, doesn't that mean you're supposed to be calling me hyung?”

Beomgyu scoffs. “As _if_ I would ever treat a human with respect.” Then he pauses. “... Fine.”

Yeonjun beams. “Lovely. Let's get this show on the road, then, hm?”

✰

In the dark night of Seoul, not even streetlights are enough to illuminate Yeonjun's skin enough to show the thin, faint black lines across his veins, to which he's grateful, because he's pretty sure that wouldn't exactly come across nicely to the taxi driver taking him to his destination.

Or, well. He's taking _them_ to their destination, because Beomgyu's there too... just recharging slowly. Apparently causing chaos in a human's apartment is draining, because Beomgyu's been dead silent since they left the apartment, and Yeonjun hasn't been able to get a hold of him.

He seems to wake up when the driver stops, though, apprehensive energy filling the air as Yeonjun gives the guy his money and then steps out of the car to see a tall, dark apartment complex.

He raises an eyebrow. “Hey, are you sure this is where we're supposed to be?”

 _Yes_ , Beomgyu hisses in his head, and Yeonjun frowns, something eery crawling over his skin. _There is a lab hidden underneath the building. I will show you where it is if you allow me to._

"Sure," Yeonjun says, and then it's like Beomgyu's taken over him completely, because he's walking up the steps and entering the complex, passing the main staircases and heading to the elevators, where he then steps inside. The door closes, and when Beomgyu doesn't make him reach out for a button, Yeonjun scowls. “Well?”

Beomgyu tilts Yeonjun's head up until he's staring at the top vent of the elevator. _We will be going out through this_. _Then we must shapeshift into liquid in order to pass between the elevator and the wall. The bunker is far below the complex altogether._

Of _course_. Nausea hits Yeonjun as he thinks about actually shapeshifting, and he winces. “Beomgyu, this sounds risky.”

 _You agreed_ , Beomgyu says calmly. _If you do not want to, take yourself back to your apartment and I will find someone else to do it with me._

Yeonjun internally groans, trying not to bang his head against the wall. He _wants_ to help. He does. It's just—

 _Hyung,_ Beomgyu says softly, and his voice is warm and accepting even as fear prickles at the back of Yeonjun's neck. _I will do everything in my power to keep you safe, alright? Do not fret._

Yeonjun bites his lip. “I'm not scared.”

 _I'm sure you aren't,_ Beomgyu says placatingly. _But does this mean you will help?_

“Fine,” Yeonjun sighs, pursing his lips and closing his eyes, taking a deep breath. “Do whatever you need to do, man. I'll try to help.”

 _This means more than anything in this human world to me,_ is Beomgyu's honest response. It would make Yeonjun's heart flutter pathetically in his chest if he weren't already being pushed forwards by Beomgyu.

It's genuinely freaky, watching himself climb up the walls of the elevator. Black ink sticks to his hands and makes them adhesive, and then Beomgyu opens the vents and climbs out, and he thinks, _fuck._

 _We do not have much time,_ Beomgyu murmurs in his head. There's a strangely calming energy radiating off of him that Yeonjun feels in the tips of his toes, and it somehow slows his heart rate down. _If someone else comes inside the elevator the fall could be dangerous._ Then he pauses for a moment, as if giving Yeonjun some space to breathe and take that in. _I'm going to shapeshift us now, hyung, okay?_

Yeonjun ignores his dinner trying to come up again and squeezes his eyes shut. “Yeah. Do what you need to do.”

Shapeshifting is... weird.

It's an out-of-body experience (pun intended), he thinks as he morphs into a liquid blob—the form Beomgyu's been taking this entire time. He slithers across the top of the elevator and tries not to scream as Beomgyu pushes him over the edge, sticking to the wall and squeezing into the small space to make it through. 

He thinks he hears the telltale sound of the elevator door opening again with a _ding!_ and momentarily panics. _Can they—will we get crushed if they decide to go to the basement?_

 _Probably,_ Beomgyu responds, and Yeonjun screams internally. _Hyung, don't be so loud, I'm trying to focus!_

 _Sorry,_ Yeonjun thinks, feeling physically ill and dizzy as Beomgyu drags them down further. Oh god, he can't even see the bottom yet, everything beneath them murky darkness. He wants to fucking _die_.

 _See? We're already past the basement,_ Beomgyu says reassuringly _,_ and if he weren't terrified down to the very bone, he would be embarrassed at how softly Beomgyu is speaking to him as opposed to his normally monotone voice, like he's a cornered animal and Beomgyu is trying to coax him out of his shell. _Now, it's going to take a little while longer to reach the bottom, so just close your eyes if you'd like._

Yeonjun doesn't even bother arguing with that, shutting his eyes and letting out a relieved breath when he hears the elevator stop moving somewhere above them. It simultaneously takes years and no time at all for them to reach their destination, and when Beomgyu says _we're here_ , his eyes shoot open.

They're crawling inside a vent, looking down. Yeonjun can make out nothing but white flooring, like the kind in a hospital or laboratory, and he ignores the anxiety swimming in his stomach again to think _do your thing, then._

 _Alright_ , Beomgyu says determinedly. Then he liquifies them even further somehow, and Yeonjun holds his breath as they sink through the vent's opening and immediately crawl up over a ceiling.

There's a security camera facing away from them, and Beomgyu hisses in Yeonjun's mind. _They'll see us when we reach the end of the hall_ , he explains. _Although I'm sure they are hyperaware of my escape, of course_.

 _Don't you think they're already expecting you to come back, too_ , Yeonjun points out with uncertainty as they begin slithering across the ceiling. Everything around them is pristine white, so bright it's startling as they make their way through the hallway. There aren't even any doors he's aware of as he looks around.

 _They most likely_ are _waiting for me,_ Beomgyu agrees. _And I will find them._ His voice in Yeonjun's head turns dark. _I will get them right where they want me, and then I will end them slowly._

_Okay, sheesh, no need to get all violent._

_That's the whole reason why we are here, hyung,_ Beomgyu says dryly, but keeps quiet. 

The hallway opens up to another longer one, and they make their way through it without any disturbances. All the while Yeonjun senses _something_ —can't tell what it is, but there's a pressure growing at the back of his head, and Beomgyu's radio silence isn't helping.

This hallway ends with a door, and Beomgyu seeps through the crack at the bottom without even checking to see what could be ahead.

 _You should've checked_ , Yeonjun groans inwardly when they stop to see a huge laboratory, expanse so large Yeonjun can't even see the other end of it from where they are.

It's blindingly bright with white lights, and the walls are just as plain as the hallways. There are scientists talking in what Yeonjun assumes to be a control room, and when he looks at the other wall—

 _Holy fuck_ , he thinks, and Beomgyu hums his agreement. There are five different encasements, all with what looks like liquid filling them up, and small monstrous entities are floating inside with tubes connected to them. Every so often one will jerk and hiss audibly even from across the room, and Yeonjun flinches as he realizes they're probably in intense pain.

The pressure at the back of his head turns into a low, unexplainable buzz that stays insistent and refuses to go away, even when Yeonjun closes his eyes and tries to breathe in, breathe out.

_Aren't you going to try to hide?_

Beomgyu scoffs in his head. _Why should I? They will see us at any moment. Let them._

 _You're on a fucking suicide mission here, dude,_ Yeonjun tries to hiss, but Beomgyu clearly isn't listening as he slithers towards the control room.

It takes a moment, but eventually a few of the scientists look at them, and they freeze for only a moment. Then one of them hits a red button and an alarm begins to blare loudly. 

Beomgyu doesn't even hesitate as he shapeshifts Yeonjun back into human form without a warning, nausea hitting him full-force again as he stands on his own two feet.

The wall of the control room is reflective, and when Yeonjun stares at himself he isn't sure he can recognize the person looking back at him—eyes pitch-black and face set in determination, dark lines pronounced now as they run over his veins. Beomgyu's blood is his own, taking control and willing to protect him.

As scientists and guards swarm out into the main room, Yeonjun realizes the pressure he's feeling in his head is pure, unadulterated fury from Beomgyu, consuming him near-completely.

 _Just close your eyes, hyung,_ Beomgyu soothes, and Yeonjun obeys, surrendering completely. _I'll take care of them._

 _Don't kill me while you're at it, please,_ Yeonjun thinks.

Beomgyu laughs lightly, as though he isn't aware that Yeonjun can feel all of his pain and anger, only barely held back. _I would never_.

He blacks out right as the guards fall upon them.

✰

When Yeonjun wakes again, he’s lying on the couch.

His mouth is painfully dry, and his head feels fuzzy, like a cotton ball has been wedged in his ears to take up all the space his brain wasn’t already occupying. Above him, and the ceiling swims and distorts, and his fingers are numb at the tips from where his hands rest at his sides.

“What the fuck,” he croaks.

It’s still second nature, even in his state, to reach out and search for his connection with Beomgyu in his head. He’s surprised to hit a wall, and then—

Yeonjun remembers the lab. The other symbiotes, some managing to escape. Beomgyu possessing him fully. _Beomgyu_ —

“Beomgyu?” Yeonjun asks, frightened when he realizes he can’t _feel_ the symbiote’s presence in his head, normally so clear and defined. It’s just… _gone_ , for some reason.

“I am here,” a soft, familiar voice responds, and Yeonjun sits up way too fast.

A mistake, because his head catches up with the action and spots dance across his vision for a solid few seconds as he catches his breath. “Holy fuck,” he pants, closing his eeys and hunching over himself, palms pressed against his eyes. He’s so caught up in trying not to pass out again that he misses the telltale scraping of a chair and steps coming towards him.

When a cool hand rests against the small of his back, he freezes. Haknyeon is likely still at his boyfriend’s place, and he’s the only other person who has access to the apartment.

As if reading his mind—“No,” the lilting voice says. “I am not Haknyeon.”

Yeonjun opens his eyes to look, and—oh.

The boy is possibly one of the most gorgeous Yeonjun has ever seen (And yeah, he’s looked in the mirror). Doe eyes gaze at him with a mixture of worry and amusement, except they’re pitch-black. He’s small in build, the line of his mouth soft in a way that makes Yeonjun’s exhaustion-addled brain think _damn, we should kiss_. His hair is dark brown and fluffy as it falls over his forehead, and he wears a soft white sweater that Yeonjun belatedly realizes is his. His tongue flicks out to we this lips, and Yeonjun gasps when he realizes 

He’s so devastatingly drop-dead gorgeous that it actually empties Yeonjun’s brain out completely. So completely that he forgets himself and only remembers what’s going on when the boy quirks an eyebrow at him.

“Who,” Yeonjun mutters, “the fuck are you?”

There’s a smile playing at the edges of the boy’s lips as he says, “Who do you think this is?”

Yeonjun’s heart overtakes his throat, and the black spots across his vision grow in size until he can see nothing, feel nothing once more. The last thing he remembers before he passes out is Beomgyu hissing, “ _Humans_. Such weaklings.”

✰

Yeonjun isn’t exactly sure of what he was expecting from all of _this_. The whole impromptu alien adoption thing, or whatever. But he certainly wasn’t expecting said adopted alien to find a human form, and he _definitely_ wasn’t expecting that human form to be unnervingly attractive.

It takes another few days or so for Yeonjun to force himself to adjust, freaking out every time he sees Beomgyu before he remembers. Possibly the strangest thing about the symbiote in human form is the way he stares at Yeonjun with the same dark, completely black eyes that he had even in his previous form, and the abnormally long, forked tongue doesn’t help. 

He seems to enjoy how it unnerves Yeonjun, licking his lips and using his tongue to lift up food whenever he eats. There’s always a glint to his eyes as he watches him now, like Yeonjun is someone he’s performing for, and every single time he can’t help but blush and look away.

Haknyeon doesn’t take it any easier, either. He’d been the one to pick Yeonjun and Beomgyu up from the lab after the chaos, courtesy of Yeonjun listing Haknyeon as an emergency contact on his phone. In his words, Beomgyu was the single most terrifying thing he’s ever seen.

“I am not _that_ scary,” Beomgyu said, affronted,, to which Haknyeon shook his head with wide eyes.

“No, dude. You’re horrifying. I mean, attractive, but horrifying. I’m sure Yeonjun can agree with me on the attractive bit, though.”

“Shut the hell up,” Yeonjun muttered under his breath. This was the morning after the fiasco, and Yeonjun was too busy staring down at his food with no appetite to notice the way Beomgyu’s searching gaze turned somewhat disappointed.

Beomgyu also refuses to tell him what happened that night. Whenever Yeonjun asks, the alien purses his lips and shakes his head, smiling when Yeonjun scowls. “It is really not something you should be worrying your pretty little head over,” he says. “But my brethren are free.”

“Oh boy,” Yeonjun mutters. “Happy for you, dude, but I think you just started the apocalypse.”

So, yeah. Yeonjun simultaneously feels like he’s experiencing something otherworldly (“I _am_ otherworldly, so you are correct,” Beomgyu says) and like he’s been run over twenty times by a very large truck. It’s fine. It’s _fine_. He totally isn’t about to lose his marbles.

“You’re totally about to lose your marbles,” Haknyeon says contemplatively from where he sits at the couch, on the phone with his boyfriend. 

“I’m not,” Yeonjun says, pinching the bridge of his nose.

“Yeah, dude, you are,” Haknyeon laughs. “Sunwoo, babe, d’you think Yeonjun’s losing his marbles?”

“Absolutely,” Sunwoo says over the phone instantly, and Yeonjun bangs his head against his textbook. 

✰

The nice thing about having an alien in your apartment is that the alien is at least self-aware enough to _stay_ in the apartment for fear of being caught in alien form. So the problem, now that Beomgyu has figured out his human form, is the immediate excitement to get out and explore. And maybe eat people.

“I never said I was going to eat people,” Beomgyu says, affronted. He’s sitting on the countertop, wearing one of Yeonjun’s purposefully oversized sweaters and looking unfairly adorable even as his tongue flicks out, forked and terrifyingly long. “You can’t just assume things about symbiotes, hyung. I believe that would be an unhealthy stereotype.”

“Right, right.” Yeonjun says flatly. “But if you were given the opportunity to eat someone…?”

“Well,” Beomgyu says. “What am I supposed to do, say no?”

“Yeah, well,” Yeonjun breathes. “Keep moving like this and I’m never taking you anywhere.”

It becomes inevitable, though. Haknyeon and Yeonjun have their own lives to deal with, and there’s only so many days of them passing Beomgyu off to each other to watch over whenever one is home before both of them have their own things to do.

“You could just trust me to stay here on my own,” Beomgyu hisses even as he excitedly puts on a pair of Haknyeon’s shoes. Yeonjun winces. If his roommate finds out he’ll be _pissed_. “I do not need a… what do they call them?”

“A babysitter?” Yeonjun fills in, throwing on his jacket. He figures Beomgyu doesn’t need one to stay warm, however alien blood works.

“Yes,” Beomgyu says. “I do not need a babysitter.”

“Okay, then,” Yeonjun says as he grabs his wallet. “Why don’t you tell me what you would do alone?”

Beomgyu’s response is immediate. “Hack into your laptop and find your porn stash.”

Yeonjun’s nostrils flare. “Oh, you’re such a fucking piece of shit.”

Beomgyu giggles as he follows out of the apartment after him. “You enjoy my presence.”

Yeonjun gives him a dirty look, but he can’t say Beomgyu’s wrong.

The trip to the grocery store goes fine, for the most part. He makes Beomgyu wear a mask, wincing when he realizes there’s nothing he can do about his eyes. “Just… look down, okay?” He hisses as they walk in.

“Ah, okay,” Beomgyu says. Then he links an arm around Yeonjun’s and rests his head against his shoulder. Instantly, they get a few looks from people in the vegetable aisle, and Yeonjun grimaces. “Protect me?”

He’s glad he’s wearing a mask too, just to hide his blush. “... Yeah, whatever.”

“Made it back in one piece, huh,” Haknyeon says with a grin as they step back inside the apartment afterwards. Beomgyu’s arm is still firmly linked around Yeonjun’s, and their hands are clasped together. Haknyeon gives them a strange look.

“Fortunately no one commented on his eyes,” Yeonjun snorts. He tries to convey a look to Haknyeon in an attempt to shut his friend up about his current situation, except Haknyeon is an asshole, because—

“But did anyone comment on the PDA?” Haknyeon laughs. “Because I’d be a bit more focused on that if I were some bystander. Beomgyu looks like he’s never been so infatuated.”

Yeonjun groans, dragging a hand over his face. “I wish you’d shut up.”

“Why would he shut up?” Beomgyu asks. There’s not a hint of coyness in his voice, only genuine confusion. “He is correct.”

Haknyeon cackles as Yeonjun blushes the hardest he’s ever blushed in his life. “Oh, the _irony_ ,” his roommate says.

“Go back to fucking your boyfriend,” Yeonjun mutters, disentangling himself from Beomgyu and setting his groceries down on the countertop. 

“I’ve gotten bored of Sunwoo and am now bothering you, clearly,” Haknyeon says snidely. When Yeonjun turns around to glare at his friend, Beomgyu is staring directly at him.

He winks when he notices Yeonjun is looking, and it lights his face on fire all over again.

✰

It all comes to a head one Sunday morning.

It’s stupid as all hell, really. One morning Yeonjun wakes up to Beomgyu snuggled up against him like he would trade everything the galaxies have to offer just to stay there next to him, and Yeonjun looks down at the way fangs poke out against his cute bottom lip and thinks to himself, _God, he’s too cute_.

Then he backtracks. _Wait, dude, he’s an alien._

“Aliens can be cute,” Beomgyu murmurs, eyes blinking open, and Yeonjun flinches back with a squeak, banging his head against the wall in the process. “Hyung, why are your self-preservation skills so piss-poor?”

Yeonjun, still loose-tongued from sleep and unnecessarily nervous with Beomgyu so close to him, stares at the ceiling blearily and says, “How dare you say I piss on the poor.”

“Ah,” Beomgyu says as he pulls away, sitting up properly. “Haknyeon hyung told me about this meme.”

Yeonjun squints at Beomgyu. “Haknyeon is a terrible influence on you.”

Beomgyu laughs, dragging Yeonjun up to sitting position. “Whatever you say, hyung. What was that about me being cute again, though?”

Yeonjun grimaces, looking away. He has to say Beomgyu’s chosen human form is positively endearing. He’s so cute sometimes that it _hurts_ , partly because Yeonjun is sick of the way his heart skips a beat now every time Beomgyu threatens to swallow him whole. It’s like he’s been Pavloving his way into finding Beomgyu’s threats of vore to be just another attractive thing about him, which... is such a deranged train of thought that he wishes he banged his head a little harder against the wall just so he’d have passed out instead.

But the morning light falls over Beomgyu’s skin gorgeously, and he looks _so_ small and adorable in one of Haknyeon’s sweaters, so big on him somehow that it falls over his thighs, and—Yeonjun maybe sort of wants to protect him forever, despite Beomgyu literally being an alien capable of extreme violence.

“You are looking at me the way Haknyeon hyung’s drama romance lead looked at his girlfriend,” Beomgyu points out, raising an eyebrow.

“Yeah, well,” Yeonjun says, giving up the act completely. “You’re cute. I think I’m allowed to look.”

A light blush dusts Beomgyu’s cheeks. Then his eyes widen.

“Oh my god,” Beomgyu says in shock, forked tongue flicking out even as his gaze brightens. “Hyung, are we about to kiss like the drama people do?”

He looks so hopeful it makes Yeonjun want to _die_. “Wow, dude,” he says awkwardly. “I mean, sure, but you wanna kiss me so bad it makes you look stupid.”

Beomgyu pouts. Then his face goes devoid of all emotion, and his eyes go black. And then he leans in so quickly Yeonjun barely has time to react before he unleashes a deafening roar, so loud he can hear Haknyeon scream and fall off of his chair from the living room.

Yeonjun’s ears are ringing as Beomgyu leans back, _tsks_ in his head and says, _do not ever play with mortal insults. I will end your life, hyung_.

“Okay, okay, what the fuck,” Yeonjun breathes when his hearing returns somewhat. He drags a hand over his face, trying to ignore how that probably just woke up half of their neighbors. He really hopes Soobin isn’t about to call the police again. “Fine. So I _do_ want to kiss you. Maybe we’re about to. What about it?”

“I don’t believe you should be holding back,” Beomgyu murmurs, and then he leans in again with his dark, dark eyes hooded, and Yeonjun gulps. One thing about Beomgyu is that he learns quickly, and clearly all of his time spent watching whatever shit shows Haknyeon enjoys is about to be put to use as he cups Yeonjun’s jaw with a cool hand, cornering him against the wall. “Try me.”

When they kiss, it feels like something akin to heaven. Yeonjun forgets about the potentially difficult conversations pertaining to dating an alien he’s going to have to sit through in favor of groaning when Beomgyu sinks his fangs into his bottom lip, crawling into his lap and making a home there. Beomgyu already knows his body well after spending so much time inhabiting it, and yet he eagerly relearns him again, until Yeonjun is panting and Beomgyu is mouthing at his pulse point.

“I thought about leaving, at first,” Beomgyu murmurs against the skin of his throat. “After the laboratory incident. But I don’t think I’ll bother with that now.”

“Yeah,” Yeonjun gasps, sliding his hands underneath Beomgyu’s sweater. “Stay here with us.”

“You just want me for my body,” Beomgyu teases, and he doesn’t even give Yeonjun a chance to respond before he’s captured his lips again, which is fine. Yeonjun’s willing to take his time showing him just how interested he is, anyway.


End file.
